The Birthday of Bilbo Baggins

Frodo as well, as I recall, was born on the 22nd of September in Middle Earth. However, there is a slight difference in the calendars of Middle Earth and contemporary Earth, so it's not clear exactly when that falls on our calendar. An exact match may not be possible, but within a few days it'll certainly have happened if any of you are inclined to cake. I may try my next, more cake-like Beorning experiment to go along with the occasion.

7 comments:

Thomas Doubting said...

From the linked discussion of calendars, it would seem Shire Sept. 22 would be around our Sept. 12 or 13

It would be interesting to recreate some of the meals and feasts from Middle Earth, at a suitable scale, of course.

J Melcher said...

I get that many do not like, or approve of, "fan fic" but I find these LoTR extension chapters absolutely exceptional.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43668633/chapters/109808010

Grim said...

We're going to say it's close enough for government work, Tom, and take any time in September as adequate. It's not as if Bilbo is going to come to the party.

E Hines said...

We're going to say it's close enough for government work....

Precisely this. I've always thought that the point of celebrating a birthday was to celebrate the birth of the individual in question rather than to celebrate the acumen of getting the date precisely right. Some folks I know do celebrate een the hour and minute of the day in question, but that's more for amusement than for seriousness. So it is, IMNSHO, with all holidays.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

As far as 'all holidays,' I can think of some I would really like to hold on the day -- Christmas has twelve of them, but it would feel strange to me to hold December 25th as non-special and just do it another day that was more convenient.

Allah, however, agrees with you.

https://qurano.com/en/2-al-baqara/verse-185/

Tom said...

No, in spite of how it looks, I wasn't nitpicking, just doing the math.

Of course, if they were Orthodox, the calendars would almost even out ...

E Hines said...

It is silly, IMNSHO, to let the celebratory date wander around; pick one and stick with it. My point was that the selected date needn't be precisely accurate (even the date of Christ's birth is uncertain), just stuck with once selected.

No one was suggesting you were nitpicking, Tom; in my case, I was just commenting on the lack of need for precision, only for consistency--including for birthdays.

Eric Hines